Wise launches low cost and fast international money transfers from India

Co-founded by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Kaarmann, Wise launched in 2011 under its original name TransferWise

Wise, a London-based financial technology company, has launched its low cost and fast international money transfers from India. With this launch, Indians will be able to send money to 44 countries, including the UK, the US, Singapore, Malaysia, the UAE and countries in the Eurozone. The service is available across Android, iOS and the web.
 
The firm is backed by investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, billionaire Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin.
 
Wise said that its service is on average 2x cheaper compared to banks and other providers like PayPal. About 38 per cent of all transfers globally are completed instantly (under 20 seconds). The firm said it is 100 per cent online, from verification to the setting up and completion of transfers. Also, the service uses the real, mid-market exchange rate seen on Reuters. “Bringing Wise to India is a big step forward in our mission to build money without borders — instant, convenient, transparent and, eventually free,” said Kristo Kaarmann, CEO and co-founder of Wise.

 

The RBI data shows that remittances under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme have been growing over the years 一 totalling $18.75 billion in FY20, with travel and paying for studies abroad accounting for over 60 per cent of the transfers.
 
The data shows that Indians are more international than ever, with an increasing need to send money abroad as quickly, easily and cost-effectively as possible,” said Kaarmann. “With this launch, we hope to make these transactions simpler and more pleasant.”
 
Venkatesh Saha, head of APAC and Middle East expansion at Wise said sending money from India has been one of the firm’s most-requested routes globally.

 
With Wise, you know exactly what you’re paying for a transfer, how much money your recipient is going to receive and how long it will take to complete a transfer, all from your phone or computer at home.”
 
The company also announced the opening of its India office in Mumbai and the appointment of payments industry veteran Rashmi Satpute as the expansion lead for the company in India. Wise has RBI approval to offer the service in conjunction with a local bank partner.
 
Independent analysis conducted by research firm Alderson Consulting shows that Wise’s prices for international money transfers are on average 2x cheaper than banks and other providers like PayPal.  For example, sending Rs 50,000 to the US costs just Rs 1,038.08 with Wise, but costs Rs 1,909 on average with banks.

 
Transfers to INR were first made available in 2013, and the company most recently enabled Google Pay users in the US to send INR to Google Pay users in India.
 
Co-founded by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann, Wise launched in 2011 under its original name TransferWise.  Both co-founders are from Estonia.
 
Hinrikus, who was the first employee at Skype, lived in London but got paid in euros. Kaarmann worked for Deloitte, also lived in London, and got paid in pounds. But he had a mortgage in euros back in Estonia. They started Wise as they both moved their money with their banks — which had expensive fees and bad exchange rates.

 
Wise is now one of the world’s fastest-growing tech companies, having raised over $1 billion in primary and secondary transactions from world-leading investors. 10 million people and businesses use Wise, which processes over £5 billion (pounds) in cross-border transactions every month.
 
Profitable since 2017, Wise said it has a Trustpilot rating of 4.6 out of 5 from over 100,000 reviews.
 
Covid impact
 
Saha of Wise said the Covid-19 pandemic has increased the adoption of digital payments and that has accelerated the business of the company. He said the customers could continue using its service even when the pandemic was at its peak.

 
“We have seen our users around the world in terms of both volumes, as well as the number of users, continue to grow,” said Saha. “We think that this trend is here to stay. For our service, you don't need to come into an office or deal with physical pieces of paper. Whether you're at home or on a bus, you can use your phone or laptop, and be able to send money.”
 
Though the travel and tourism industry has been impacted by the coronavirus, Saha is seeing that people are now using Wise’s services for different use cases such as international e-commerce. This was small segments but is now growing very fast.

 
We believe that Indians will continue to globalize, travel abroad and for their education and other things,” said Saha. “We hope to play a (role) in making all of these processes seamless, easy, convenient and cheap.”